Conventional email systems typically include a reply command that uses addresses of recipients of a selected message to address a reply message. Messages and their replies typically form a set of related messages sometimes referred to as a thread. Often times, this set of related messages may be many levels or layers of replies, replies to replies, etc., in which a particular topic is discussed among the group of recipients.
Some users occasionally use the reply command as a short cut for addressing a new message to the sender and/or one or more of the recipients of the selected message even when the new message is unrelated to the selected message. This poses a problem with existing email systems that include or operate in connection with a threading system (or service) that tracks related messages and/or documents. These email systems make use of the relationships among messages in a thread by allowing a user to issue a command on one message or document in a particular thread, and have that command be applied to one or more other messages or documents in the thread.
When a user uses the reply command with respect to a selected message as short cut for addressing a new, unrelated message, a problem arises with the threading service. The reply command creates a relationship between the new message and the selected message that is otherwise exploited by the threading service. In the example above, even though the relationship created is an artificial one, created for purposes of convenience, the relationship may later cause unintended consequences.
What is needed is a mechanism that allows a user to address a new message to one or more recipients of a selected message with without creating a relationship between the new message and the selected message.